The Little Mermaid 50 Day Challenge: Week Four

Welcome back to another installment of The Little Mermaid 50 Day Challenge where each week Zachary Kenny takes us behind-the-scenes at the creation of Disney’s animated classic through his artwork. Without further ado, take it away Zach!

Zachary Kenny-Four weeks down. Three to go! This week’s gonna be a large toss-up. One half will focus on the locations/settings & then we’ll take a look at hidden stuff. Before we begin, the locations/settings will be lineart, not fully-colored and their descriptions won’t really say much ‘cause… it’s just a drawing of the set, that’s it. Now…let’s get to it!

DAY 22: ATLANTICA

To start with the backgrounds, here we have the majestic land of Atlantica; the kingdom of King Triton, his daughters and all merfolk. Interestingly enough, it didn’t really get its name until the sequel, but does anybody find it kind of strange why they didn’t call it Atlantis? Because it’s pretty much EXACTLY the same. Maybe it was copyright something or other, maybe Disney didn’t want confusion with the Lost Empire, who knows. Anyway, there’s not a better wetter place for you go to than the waterlogged city of Atlantica.

DAY 23: ARIEL’S GROTTO

We all have one of these places; a secret spot nobody but you know of, filled with treasures you hold dearest to you. Ariel’s grotto is no exception. It’s a cave where she keeps all her human stuff, after finding them from sunken ships, the surface, all with Scuttle’s “knowledge” of what they are. Apparently, there’s more than one. There’s one from the TV series (that Ariel had to destroy herself) and the more famous one from the film. Unfortunately, it got destroyed by Ariel’s father… yet it reappeared briefly in the sequel. I kinda thought that the place Sebastian leads everyone in the third film would eventually become the grotto, but I guess not.

DAY 24: ERIC’S CASTLE

Eric’s castle is well… exactly that, where Eric, Max, Grimsby, Carlotta, Chef Louis, the servants & now Ariel reside, possibly taking place somewhere in Denmark.

DAY 25: URSULA’S LAIR

Finally, Ursula’s lair, where Ursula’s been banned ever since she tried to overthrow Triton. It’s got a great eery, whale-like skeletal structure, all around the perfect place for a villain to reside.

DAY 26: “WHY, YOU LITTLE… !”

Now we start the hidden stuff. With this one, it’s a coincidence people are starting to notice. If you remember in the wedding crash, Vanessa, wearing white, strangles Scuttle, a creature smaller & weaker than her, by his neck, saying “Oh, why you little… !” Sound familiar? Yeah, The Simpsons, which also debuted in 1989, has Homer to that to Bart on a regular basis. Surely Ron & John didn’t have that intentionally coincidental, but many fans have pointed that out similarity & now I can’t help but hear Homer’s voice at that point in TLM. So, similar to a brief moment from the Simpsons & Family Guy crossover, we have Homer & Bart, Vanessa & Scuttle doing the same action, but with their designs flipped. AKA, the Disney characters done Matt Groening style & the Simpsons characters done Disney style… which by the way, isn’t as easy as you’d think it’d be, despite Family Guy doing it flawlessly. So if Homer & Bart don’t look perfectly Disney-esque, I won’t fight you. Just keep Homer out of the sea.

DAY 27: HIDDEN CHARACTER CAMEOES

Everyone knows Disney ALWAYS puts hidden cameos in their films, TV shows, etc., so here are the ones people have noticed in this film.

When Triton makes his grand entrance, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy & Kermit the Frog are seen in the crowd. Interesting with Kermit’s is that this was just before Disney & Jim Henson started their agreement & the Henson Company was also developing a puppet Little Mermaid TV show. But that’s another article for another time, possibly on a different website.
At the end of “Under the Sea”, when the fish do the “ta-da!” pose, if you look at the center left, the fish with glasses is actually a character from a Don Knotts movie called The Incredible Mr. Limpet… which wasn’t made by Disney; it was a Warner Bros production.
In Eric’s castle at the dinner table, there’s a painting of Aurora & Philip from Sleeping Beauty. It’s maybe as a reference to the fact that this was Disney’s return to fairytales, ‘cause they hadn’t made one since Sleeping Beauty.
Finally, during the wedding crash, Max runs past the King & the Grand Duke from Cinderella.

So, here we have all those characters reenacting this screenshot, all as mer-people. Why isn’t Kermit? Because 1, Kermit’s been able to interact underwater just as well on land, & 2, there’s a frog shown in an orchestra, it’s next to the octopus. Who knows? Maybe he’s Kermit’s Caribbean cousin.

DAY 28: TANGLED-FROZEN-TLM THEORY

I’m jumping ahead a bit instead of going chronological order as I’ve been doing, but since the last 2 focused on hidden stuff, here’s a fan theory that people have put together: “the Tangled Frozen Little Mermaid Theory”. Most of you have probably heard of it, but for those unfamiliar, here’s an in-depth BuzzFeed article on it. Here’s the quick version: In Frozen, the King and Queen were leaving to go to Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder’s, from Tangled, wedding, because Rapunzel, Anna & Elsa are cousins, possibly explaining why she & Flynn were at Elsa’s coronation. The ship gets engulfed by the storm & waves, sinking to the ocean floor, where years later, Ariel & Flounder explore. Once I heard this theory, I couldn’t watch any of these movies the same again, but in a good way. It’s so creative & out there, it sounds legit! Ariel even says “You’re not getting cold fins now, are you?”, possibly hinting Elsa’s show-stopping hit, & the skeleton Flounder gets freaked out by could be the King of Arendelle! So inspired by artist Amy Mebberson’s Pocket Princess series, here we have Anna, Elsa, Ariel & Rapunzel having a short talk, each with connections to the theory, mostly the fact that Ariel’s a thief.